Restaurant Reviews and Food Musings

Restaurant

La Bersagliera
372 King’s Road
London
SW3 5UZ

Phone:- 0207 352 5993

Overview

Eva and I were wandering around Sloane Square on Friday; and so we decided to pop into La Bersagliera, an Italian restaurant on the King’s Road.

Ambience

La Bersagliera was very lively and busy. However, the staff managed to find us a table without any delay.

La Bersagliera is compact, but the tables are not too close together; privacy is enhanced by the large potted shrubs that are placed between the tables. The cool white marble floor is offset by the warm red walls, which in turn are complemented by the bright ceiling with large fans. The tables, instead of having flowers, were decorated with sprigs of fresh rosemary in small vases of water.

The background music was quite loud, but not intrusive.

Menu

The menu offers a good selection of Italian dishes such as; pasta, pizza, calves kidneys and lamb. Specials are written on blackboards.

Service

The service was courteous, prompt and efficient. I was pleased to see that the waiters were offering freshly grated Parmesan.

Food

I started with lasagne. This was a little disappointing as it came swimming in a tomato sauce, which to some extent overpowered the dish. There was little taste of meat or béchamel sauce, and the cheese that had been used in the dish had a rubber like quality. Although the dish was filling, it was bland; and not of the quality or taste that I would expect in a good Italian restaurant.

I chose the poussin for my main course. This was better; the poussin had been spatchcocked, flattened, and cooked with herbs. It was succulent and quite tasty. The sauté potatoes that accompanied it were tasty, although a little greasy.

Eva started with mango and crab. This was very fresh and tasted good; the crab was served in a pleasant tasting mayonnaise based sauce, and was accompanied with fresh mango slices.

Eva chose the calzone, a folded pizza, for her main course. This was absurdly large, some three feet long I would venture. The calzone itself was stuffed with cheese, chorizo and salami. Again the same industrial rubber cheese had been used, I tried a mouthful and must confess found it was hard work to chew. Notwithstanding the texture, the flavour was reasonable.

The meal, which included a good bottle of Chianti, and post dinner liqueurs came to £55 before service.

Overall Opinion

Food wise it is a bit of a hit or miss affair. However, I cannot fault it for atmosphere. If you want cheap and cheerful, and avoid any dish with cheese, then it is not too bad a place to go.